CSWE Joins Call to Sustain SBE Funding

News

Published on : November 6, 2025

On November 6, the Council on Social Work Education and 57 other organizations signed a joint letter urging Congress to fund the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate, at the highest possible level in fiscal year 2026 appropriations. 

Below is the full text of the letter:

 

November 6, 2025

To:
The Honorable Susan Collins, Chair
The Honorable Tom Cole, Chairman
The Honorable Patty Murray, Vice Chair
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro, Ranking Member


Dear Chair Collins, Vice Chair Murray, Chair Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro:

On behalf of the below 58 scientific societies and institutions, united in our appreciation of and support for the critical role of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance the behavioral, social, and education sciences – we are writing to urge you to fund NSF at the highest level possible in FY 2026 appropriations and accede to the critical Senate report language (pg 164 and below) directing sustained funding for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate.

The SBE Directorate funds foundational research that has already benefited all Americans by driving technological innovation, enhancing national security, and bolstering economic prosperity. Continued investment in these areas — and all disciplines supported by the SBE directorate — is essential for not only sustaining the future of the nation’s scientific enterprise but also serving the public’s health and well being.

As noted in the September 23 letter to you from founders, venture capitalists, and the business community, “NSF investments in neural networks and cognitive science helped drive the development of modern-day AI.” The foundational role of cognitive and psychological sciences was further highlighted in the 2024 Golden Goose Awards — How We Think: Brain-Inspired Models of Human Cognition Contribute to the Foundations of Today’s Artificial Intelligence, demonstrating the breathtaking return on investment in the SBE Directorate. SBE is uniquely positioned to advance guidelines, opportunities, and limitations about the deployment of AI systems moving forward.

The SBE Directorate also provides funding for research vital to military readiness, safety, and cost-effectiveness. For example, understanding of core cognitive skills and memory has allowed the U.S. Navy to build studies on how soldiers think and reason during high-stakes tasks such as navigation, mechanical analysis, and combat. When soldiers cannot regulate their attention, they under-perform across multiple domains. In training and in combat, where distraction and interference are standard, the stakes of attention control can be life-or-death. Numerous other agencies such as DARPA, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense all build and rely on SBE funded research.

Furthermore, the SBE Directorate — with a fraction of the science budgets of other NSF’s Directorates — enables the research that drives economic prosperity, measuring and evaluating the impact of federal investment in R&D and bolstering government, industry, and academic partnerships. In fact, earlier this month, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics went to two NSF funded researchers for their work on the technological roots of sustained economic growth, continuing a long winning streak of having funded 73 of the 99 laureates to receive the prize to date, including every prize awarded since 1997.

Once again, we thank you for your continued bipartisan efforts to support NSF in FY 2026 appropriations, particularly in light of the massive cuts proposed in the budget request. As you work to finalize FY 2026 appropriations, we urge you to fund NSF to at least the funding level proposed by the Senate, ensuring that NSF has the necessary funding to support all disciplines, including the behavioral, social, and economic sciences, and to fulfill its ambitious mission.

Millions of scientists, students, teachers, and entrepreneurs across this country have and will continue to benefit from Congress’ investment in NSF — and specifically the SBE Directorate — to advance cutting-edge research to accelerate technological innovation, national security, and economic prosperity.

Sincerely,

  • American Academy of Political and Social Science
  • American Anthropological Association
  • American Astronomical Society
  • American Brain Coalition
  • American Educational Research Association
  • American Geophysical Union
  • American Institute of Biological Sciences
  • American Political Science Association
  • American Psychological Association Services, Inc.
  • American Sociological Association
  • Association for Psychological Science
  • Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
  • Association of Population Centers
  • Black Men's Brain Health Conference
  • Boston University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Cognitive Development Society
  • Cognitive Science Society
  • College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
  • Computing Research Association
  • Consortium of Social Science Associations
  • Council of Graduate Schools
  • Council on Social Work Education
  • Council on Undergraduate Research
  • Davey Strategies
  • Department of Psychology, Brandeis University
  • Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • International Bipolar Foundation
  • Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Population Association of America
  • Psychonomic Society
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Rural Minds
  • Sage
  • Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS)
  • Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
  • Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine
  • Society for Judgment and Decision Making
  • Society for Personality and Social Psychology
  • Society for Prevention Research
  • Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  • Society for Research on Adolescence
  • Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
  • Society of Experimental Psychologists
  • The Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Oregon
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of Rochester
  • University of Colorado Anschutz
  • University of Colorado Boulder
  • University of Colorado Colorado Springs
  • University of Colorado Denver
  • Vision Sciences Society
  • Washington University in St. Louis


CC:
NSF Acting Director Brian Stone
National Science Board Chair Victor McCrary

Senate FY26 NSF Report Language: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences [SBE].—The Committee supports the SBE Directorate and recognizes the fundamental importance of the research it supports in advancing scientific understanding of public health, defense and security, education and learning, and the interface between humans and technology. The Committee provides not less than the fiscal year 2024 enacted level for the SBE Directorate. The SBE Directorate funds more than half of our Nation’s university-based behavioral science research but remains the smallest of NSF directorates. The Committee believes that behavioral science provides evidence-based understanding of human behavior and recognizes the SBE Directorate’s unique role in funding this research and encourages NSF to continue its support of these programs. NSF is encouraged to support broad-based research in the SBE Directorate to develop and publish recommendations, including from researchers in the social sciences and ethics and technical subject matter experts, on concrete and practical guidelines for how organizations will and should deploy AI systems and identify limitations and concerns about specific deployment of AI systems in settings.